Grandmas & Crime Labs
by WanderingAngel
Summary: tongueincheek interpretation of the Christmas classic “Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer.” A rare Christmas snowstorm leaves behind a most unusual crime scene for the MiamiDade Crime Lab…eventual crossover with XFiles. Please Review....
1. Chapter 1

**Grandmas & Crime Labs**

Part One

Disclaimer: I own nothing. This is just my own tongue-in-cheek interpretation of the Christmas classic "Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer."

Summary: A rare Christmas snowstorm leaves behind a most unusual crime scene for the Miami-Dade Crime Lab…eventual crossover with X-Files

In South Florida, there were several things you could almost always count on throughout the year; amongst them the seasonal influx of 'snow-birds', which were those people who normally lived up north in colder climates but would flood the area come wintertime and live here until the spring, traffic jams on I-95 and the Florida Turnpike, and the unpredictability of Florida weather. It was the latter that captured the attention of Lieutenant Horatio Caine as he drove through the streets of Miami early on a rather strange Christmas morning. Living and working in Miami-Dade for several years now, Horatio had encountered all sorts of weather phenomenon, ranging from heavy rainstorms to severe thunder & lightning displays; he even survived a tsunami by taking shelter with Delko inside a bank vault. However, he was not prepared for what he saw all around him this morning: snow…lots and lots of snow. Mother Nature had dumped about 10 inches of snow overnight on Christmas Eve during a freak snowstorm and had caught everyone by surprise. This was evident by the dozen or so accidents that he passed, even using his department Hummer to pull free a couple of unlucky motorists caught in snowdrifts. Thankfully, traffic was light due to the holiday or it might have been much worse. Horatio had seen much and had come to learn that there was not much out there that could surprise him. However, all that was about to change. It started with a phone call.

Detective Frank Tripp was not a happy man. It was bad enough that he was called out to a crime scene on Christmas Morning. It was adding insult to injury when he had to get to that crime scene while driving through a blizzard. To say he was not used to this kind of weather would be the ultimate understatement. He knew Florida tended to have funky weather, but this was ridiculous. There had not been snow in South Florida long since Tripp could remember, and he was currently forced to wear a heavy parka that made him feel (and look) like a giant penguin. He hoped to get through this scene quickly and get home to some eggnog and fruitcake, so he was happy to see Horatio Caine and the rest of his team finally roll up in their Hummers. As Tripp watched them get out and walk up to where he waited, he idly wondered how long it took them to get here. The crime scene was in the Doral section of Miami-Dade, just west of Miami International Airport, and for Tripp, driving to the scene had been like taking your life into your hands.

"Hey Frank, what do you have?" Lt. Caine asked as they all gathered around the scene. Tripp sighed…while waiting for the CSIs, he had time to review his notes and try and come up with some kind of rational explanation for what he thought had happened, and he hoped Horatio and Co. could sort everything out. He took a big breath….


	2. Chapter 2

**Grandmas & Crime Labs**

Part Two

"Our vic is female, 75 years old, Hispanic, lives down at the end of the block", Tripp said as he walked over to where the body still lay in the snow, near the sidewalk. Their medical examiner, Dr. Alexx Woods, was already working on the body, trying to process as much as she could before she took it back to the lab for a full autopsy.

"Do we have an ID"?

"License found in her pocket gives her name as Esther Sanchez".

"Who found her Frank"? asked Lt. Caine.

"Two members of her family, her husband and her grandson, literally stumbled across her as they were walking to her house". Trip indicated an older man and a young boy talking with a patrol officer giving statements. "Interestingly enough, they had filed a missing person's report not several hours ago. They claimed she disappeared from the grandson's own home right around the corner late at night on Christmas Eve; said she was determined to walk home to get some medication".

"Indeed? What would possess a 75 year-old grandmother to go walking to her home a good block or so away just to get some medication, particularly in these weather conditions", muttered Horatio.

Tripp shrugged. "I don't know. Why don't you go ask them yourself"?

"You know what Frank, I think I will do just that".

Before he went to interview the family members, he went up to Alexx Woods to get a status report.

"Hey Alexx, anything you can tell me so far"?

Miami's resident coroner looked up at Horatio with a somewhat perplexed expression on her face: "Keep in mind Horatio that I am not sure how much evidence I will be able to gather, due to all the snow". Horatio nodded; the fear that the melting snow could possibly contaminate any possible evidence gnawed at the back of his mind as well. "Based on my preliminary examination however, I can tell you that she has been out here for some time. Limbs seem to be stiff, but I cannot tell if that is from rigor mortis or simply that her body became a giant popsicle and simply froze in place. I won't be able to confirm until after autopsy, but preliminary time of death would be between eight and nine hours ago, in the middle of the night on Christmas Eve. What a way to go".

"What about a cause of death Alexx"?

"Now here is where this case gets interesting. Take a look at this Horatio". She removed a hat that had been covering her head but had slid down over her face, to indicate two deep impressions on her forehead. "I'm no expert on animals, but those impressions look an awful lot like hoof prints."

"Mr. Wolfe, come over here and take a look at this will you. What do you make of this"?

Ryan Wolfe walked over, squatted down and took a look at the marks on the woman's forehead, simultaneously taking pictures from several angles with his camera. "They certainly look like animal tracks, but right now I am not certain. If I may suggest H, when Alexx is done with the body, I would like to make plaster casts of these impressions. I could take a look in some animal databases and see if we come up with a match."

"Good idea Mr. Wolfe. Follow up with Alexx on this, and let me know what you find later."

"You got it H." Ryan replied.

"Hey Horatio," Alexx called out, "there's more." She carefully rolled the body over so that her back was visible, then stared back at Horatio, eyebrows raised.

Horatio looked at her back, then at Alexx, then again at the woman's back. There were several deep tears in her jacket, and scratches on the woman's back. "Alexx, are those claw marks running down her back?"

"It sure looks like it Horatio."

"Ryan, take some plaster casts of these marks as well. It's possible that whatever animal made these claw marks on her back is the same animal that left those impressions on her forehead." Ryan nodded to show he understood while continuing to take pictures. At this point, Alexx rolled the body back to its original position when Ryan noticed something near one of the impressions on her forehead.

"Hey Alexx, what is that in the impressions? Looks like a small piece of metal."

Alex leaned in closer and with a pair of tweezers, lifted out a small piece of metal, about silver in color. It was curved, with a unique design of dots running over the edge.

Horatio examined it for a moment. "Mr. Wolfe, take this back to trace will you please?" He handed the piece to Ryan while he picked up a small evidence envelope.

"I also found additional trace evidence under the victim's fingernails," Alexx continued, "looks like skin and some small tufts of what could be either hair or animal fur."

"I'll take it back to Trace and have it analyzed H," Ryan said as he collected the skin and hair/fur from the fingernails and placed it in evidence bags.

"Thank you Mr. Wolfe," said Horatio, as he stood up and took a moment to look around at the scene and surrounding neighborhood. There were several homes along this street, looked like a relatively quiet area, with only a few trees scattered sporadically up and down the street. While sweeping his eyes along the street, he almost missed a slight impression in the snow near the base of a nearby tree. At first he thought it was a trick of light, but then he walked over and saw that there was indeed a slight impression in the snow. He brushed some snow away to get a better look and was surprised to find a black leather whip lying in the snow. "Eric, Calleigh, come here for a minute please".

When Delko and Calleigh walked over and Horatio showed them what he found, Calleigh spoke first. "Well, this certainly seems out of place here doesn't it?"

"Yeah, maybe some husband was bringing it home as a 'unique' gift for his wife," Delko added with a slight grin."

"Somehow I don't think so Eric. I don't know exactly how this ties in to our vic here, but I have a feeling that it does. Get this back to the lab all the same would you please, thanks."

He turned toward the husband and grandson at last and walked over to them.

"Hello Mr. Sanchez, my name is Lieutenant Horatio Caine. First of all, I am sorry for your loss. I was also hoping to ask you a couple of questions in addition to your statements you gave to the patrol officer if I may."

"Thank you Lieutenant. Call me Nicolas, and this is my grandson Ricardo. What else would you like to know"?

My first question is, why exactly would your wife Esther be so determined to walk a block and a half to her home just to get some medication? I know medicine is important, but with these weather conditions and all…."

"Yes yes, I know how weird it seems Lieutenant, Nicolas replied, running a hand through his hair in a rather sheepish expression. "She was drinking too much eggnog, and we begged her not to go; but she forgot her medication, and she staggered out the door into the snow. Simple as that really."

Before Horatio could reply, the grandson Ricardo piped up, "I know what happened to Grandma."

Horatio looked at the boy, who he guessed was probably about seven to nine years old. "Oh really? What happened son?"

Ricardo replied, "Grandma got run over by a reindeer, walking home from our house Christmas Eve. You can say there's no such thing as Santa, but as for me and Grandpa, we believe."

Horatio raised an eyebrow and shared a look with the grandfather Nicolas. For his part, Nicolas could only grin sheepishly, while it was all Horatio could do to maintain a poker face and not burst out laughing. "Is this true Nicolas?"

Nicolas could only shrug, not sure what else to say at the moment.

"That's ok folks. I'll be in touch. If you think of anything more, please let me know. You're free to go for now." Nicolas nodded as Horatio handed him his business card and watched them walk away.

Lt. Caine frowned. He did not like the direction this case was starting to turn. Something about all this evidence was rubbing Horatio the wrong way, but he couldn't put a finger on exactly what it was. He remembered a famous axiom by Sherlock Holmes, "When you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth." Well, Horatio thought, he would just have to wait and see what the evidence told him.


	3. Chapter 3

**Grandmas & Crime Labs**

Part Three

A short while later, everyone began wrapping up the scene, and the CSIs all gathered around Lt. Caine after gathering all the evidence they could find. Alexx had already left with the body and was on her way back to the lab to perform the autopsy, and the others had finished placing the evidence in the Hummers to go to the lab.

Delko spoke up first. "So what do you think H? Any ideas yet?"

Horatio did a last, quick visual sweep of the scene before replying. "I have some ideas Eric, but I want to keep them to myself for right now. I want to wait for the evidence to be processed first before coming to any possible conclusions. When I eventually tell you what I am starting to think happened, all of you may look at me with facial expressions that would probably say 'You're kidding me, right?' Thus if my suspicions are right, I want to have the evidence to back them up.

Horatio filled them in on his interview with the victim's husband & grandson, Nicolas and Ricardo Sanchez, and sure enough, they all raised their eyebrows that clearly indicated how skeptical they were about what the grandson told Horatio. "Alright, here's the plan. Ryan, take the hair & fur samples and the piece of metal to Trace, and have Valera & Natalia work on it and see what they come up with; then go find Alexx and see if she is ready for you to make plaster casts of the marks on her body. Eric, I want you and Frank to first go over and process the vic's house. Pay particular attention to any medication prescriptions you might find that may tell us what our victim may have been on her way to retrieve. Then I want you both to go to the grandson's family's home. Try and interview any family members that are there, see if you can find out any additional information that might be of use to the investigation. Calleigh, I would like you to analyze the leather whip we found, see if you can find any prints or trace evidence."

"I'll try Horatio, but with it having been lying in the snow like this for who knows how long, I don't know how much will be viable."

"I understand Calleigh. Give it your best shot anyway, ok?"

Calleigh nodded, and everyone then got in their Hummers and headed back to the lab.

After dropping off the hair & fur samples and the piece of metal with Natalia & Valera, Ryan made his way to the morgue and found Alexx wrapping up the autopsy on Esther Sanchez. "Hey Alexx", looking down at the body, "Can you tell us what killed our vic here?"

Looking at her report, she said, "Cause of death is a combination of blunt force trauma to the head and severe hypothermia from her body having frozen to death due to laying in the same position for hours."

Ryan thought a moment, "Hmm, as if the blunt force trauma was hard enough to knock her unconscious, and as a result, she lay in the same position, unmoving, for several hours, long enough for her body to shut down and become frozen."

"It sure seems that way," Alexx replied.

Ryan nodded. "Any better idea as to what might have caused those impressions on her head and the claw marks on her back?"

Alexx shook her head, "No clue about her forehead, but take a look at the claw marks on her back for a second." She turned the body over and indicated to Ryan, "Whatever made those marks was rough, uneven, jagged sharp on the edge. I'm thinking of that piece of metal you pulled out her forehead perhaps."

"I have Valera & Natalia going over it now, as well as the samples you pulled from under the victim's fingernails."

"Horatio told me that you wanted to make plaster casts of the indentations on her forehead and on her back. I'm pretty much done for now, so you can go ahead, do what you need to do."

The next while was spent getting the needed supplies, placing the mixture over the body (starting with the forehead and then her back), and once the plaster was dry, Ryan took the now hardened cast impressions and scanned them into the computer. He had the computer run the scans through various animal wildlife and veterinarian databases, and began cleaning up the lab as the search was still going. He had just finished putting away the last of the supplies when he heard the telltale beep that the system had found a match. When he saw what animal it was that made the impressions, his eyes went wide. 'H is going to love this', he thought sarcastically, as he printed out the report and left to go find Horatio.

Meanwhile, Calleigh took out the whip from the evidence bag and began closely examining the whip. It didn't seem to have any distinguishing markings or other characteristics, and since most of the moisture had appeared to dry off, she hoped to pull _something_ off the whip that could prove useful. After a while, she eventually found what turned out to be a fingerprint, one that she was frankly surprised to find, considering the conditions of the scene when they found it in the first place. She took the print and started to run it, but almost immediately it beeped back. However, right after it said 'Positive Match', the screen changed to read 'Access restricted by order of the Federal Bureau of Investigation—please enter authorization code."

Calleigh's eyebrows went up. 'This is an unexpected development' she thought, picking up the phone. "Horatio, can you come meet me in the fingerprint lab? I had managed to pull a print off the handle of the whip, but there is something you have to see."

When Lt. Caine arrived a few moments later, Calleigh simply turned and pointed to the computer screen where the same message from before was still displayed.

"I haven't even attempted to try and access this one H. That's why I called you right away."

Horatio tried using his own authorization codes, but they did not work either. He frowned, again not liking where this case was going. He rarely liked to go by hunches alone, but this time he had a strange feeling that this case was about to south, and in a hurry no less. "Calleigh, I need you to forward all of this to my computer in my office, and then come meet me there, ok? I think we are about to receive a 'friendly' visit from the FBI." Calleigh nodded to show she understood as she went to work while Horatio left to go to his office.

Some time later, Horatio and Calleigh were in his office when Ryan came in. Horatio sensed immediately that something was troubling the young CSI, but he waited for Mr. Wolfe to begin.

Acknowledging Calleigh with a nod, he turned to Horatio, holding up a file. "I just left the morgue, and Alexx confirms that COD was a combination of blunt force trauma to the head, which led to unconsciousness, which in turn led to hypothermia."

"She froze to death?" Calleigh exclaimed.

"Basically yes," Ryan replied. "But that's not all. I took the plaster casts of the marks on her forehead and her back and ran them through the database. When I got the results back, at first I was surprised. Considering our vic was standing upright when she was walking home, and considering the angle of the impressions and the claw marks, at first I couldn't believe it, but as you always say Horatio, the evidence doesn't lie."

"What kind of animal exactly are we dealing with Mr. Wolfe?" asked Horatio.

"The animal that attacked our victim is a 'Rangifer tarandus'.

"Speak English please, Mr. Wolfe."

"Grandma got run over by a Reindeer."


	4. Chapter 4

**Grandmas & Crime Labs**

**Part Four**

Delko and Tripp had just finished examining the victim's home, and were now on their way to the grandson's house around the corner.

"You know Eric," Tripp said as they walked, "a part of me was astounded by the amount of medication in that woman's home. Her medicine cabinet ran the whole gamut of medications from Prozac to Ambien, and she had so much in there that I think she could have run every Walgreens and CVS in Dade County out of business, if given the chance. How are we supposed to figure out what she might have been going to retrieve?"

"I don't know Frank," Delko replied. "For all I know, she might have been going to bring every last one back to the Grandson's home because she couldn't remember what she had taken last. Relax though Frank. I did catalogue a list of all the medications I found. If I need to, I can obtain her medical records and compare those to the meds to see what she might have been on."

Tripp was about to respond, but then they found themselves outside the door of the Grandson's home. When they knocked, they were admitted by a tall woman with long, dark hair, piercing blue eyes and sharp sculpted features who introduced herself as Isabel Sanchez, who was one of Esther & Nicolas's daughters. She led them into a large family room where various other relatives were gathered. Delko noticed some small children nearby watching tv; at a table near the entrance to the kitchen, he saw the vic's husband playing some kind of card game with some woman. Isabel offered them both some hot cocoa, but they both declined.

"Thank you for taking the time to talk to us Ms. Sanchez. We are deeply sorry for your loss, especially at this time of the year. We understand your family is in mourning, so we will try to be brief," Delko said softly.

Isabel nodded, "Thank you officer Delko. Now, how can I help you officers?"

"Was there anyone that you know of who would want to hurt your mother Ms. Sanchez?" Tripp asked.

Ms. Sanchez shook her head fiercely. "No Detective. She was one of the sweetest people I knew. She would always go out of her way to help anyone. She loved her life, and adored her family, and she especially doted on her grandchildren. She wouldn't hurt a fly. This is just so shocking to all of us that she is gone."

"How's Nicolas holding up so far?" asked Delko.

Isabel gave a small snort and actually smiled in bemusement at Delko and Tripp. They shared a brief look, raised their eyebrows, and shrugged.

"Now we're all so proud of Grandpa. He's been taking this so well; sitting in there watching football, drinking beer and playing cards with Cousin Nell." She replied. She shook her head then and signed before continuing, "It's just not Christmas without Grandma, and as you can see all the family's dressed in black; and out of all the possible questions we could be asking ourselves, we just can't help but wonder, should we open up her gifts or send them back?" At that, the rest of the family began shouting "SEND THEM BACK", and it quickly descended into heated debate, but they soon decided in the end to just send them back anyway.

Just then, a voice called out from the kitchen, "Isabel, the food is ready!"

Ms. Sanchez turned back to Delko & Tripp and to her credit gave a sheepish smile, "Sorry, we were about to sit down to have a Christmas Dinner. I know you can't stay, but I would like you to come see what we have."

With nothing much better to do, Delko and Frank followed Isabel into the kitchen, where on the table sat a large, cooked goose, all done up and ready to eat. They also noticed several dishes of a pudding that Isabel explained were made of fig, and several weird-looking candles. Isabel noticed their glances. "Oh, those are blue and silver candles that we have tried several times to match the color to the hair in Grandma's wig." At that, Frank and Eric shared another look. They both realized that that meant she might have been taking medication for some kind of cancer treatment, which might shed some light on what meds she might have been trying to get, but they also realized that now was not the right time to ask about that. Besides, he could probably find what he needed to know by reviewing her medical records, Eric thought.

"Now before you go I do need to mention one other thing. Nicolas told me what my son Ricardo told your Lieutenant Caine about who he thought killed my mother. I know this sounds crazy, but I believe him! My son has never lied to me before, and I don't see why he would start now. So I've warned all my friends and neighbors that they better watch out for themselves. They should never give a license to a man who drives a sleigh and plays with elves."

Frank and Eric looked at each other and agreed it was time to get out of there, that perhaps Ms. Sanchez was drinking a little too much eggnog. "Well, thank you for your time Ms. Sanchez. We'll be by if we have any more questions." Frank said, and they both quickly left.

Meanwhile, Calleigh and Horatio were still trying to take in what Ryan said about what he thought had attacked their vic.

Calleigh was still somewhat skeptical. "Ryan, are you sure? How can it be reindeer? For one thing, reindeer don't exist, especially this far south. The only deer species I know of are the little Key deer that populate parts of the Florida Keys. Also, considering the angle at which our victim was struck, say if it was a reindeer, it would have had to been flying, and those kind of reindeer supposedly only live at the North Pole, in the imaginations of children…."

Just then her eyes went wide, and her face took on an expression that said 'You can't be serious, right?' Before Ryan or Calleigh could respond and say anything more, there was a knock on the door and Valera & Natalia came in. "Horatio, we just finished analyzing the piece of metal and the trace Ryan brought us from the victim's forehead and fingernails." Valera said.

Calleigh interrupted right then, "Let me guess, the piece of metal somehow broke off of a horseshoe, and the fur and skin came from a reindeer, right?" she asked with a bit of sarcasm in her voice.

Natalia looked at her curiously, "Err, yeah, actually. How did you know?"

Calleigh rolled her eyes. "Well, Ryan here was about to tell us that our victim was run over by flying reindeer who share names like Rudolph, Donner, Dasher, Prancer and Blitzen and who were driving a big magical sleigh." Basically, our killer is Santa Claus."

As she was speaking, she didn't notice Delko and Tripp enter Horatio's office and thus they caught most of what she said.

Frank gave a snort, "So basically what you're saying is, you expect me to believe that our killer is none other than Jolly Ole' Saint Nick himself Santa Claus? Come on Calleigh, you can't be serious! Besides, what would we charge him with? Vehicular homicide by sleigh? Yeah, I could see that going over real well in court, charging Santa Claus with murder. We would become a laughingstock all over Florida!"

"Actually, you wouldn't be too far off the mark," a new voice replied. Everyone's head swiveled to the doorway to see a tall man with short, dark hair & a woman with short reddish hair. Both were wearing clothing that screamed Feds. They walked a little further into the room. "Your front desk told us to come back here. We're looking for a Lieutenant Horatio Caine."

Horatio stood up from behind his desk and walked around. "I am Lt. Caine, can I help you?"

Their suspicion that they were Feds was confirmed when they each pulled out ID. The man spoke up first. "My name is Special Agent Fox Mulder. This is my partner, Special Agent Dr. Dana Scully," indicating the woman next to him, "we're with the FBI out of Washington, DC." Horatio inspected their ID and when he nodded his satisfaction, they put them away.

"DC huh?" Horatio asked carefully, "May I ask what brings you all the way down here? Frankly, I am a little surprised that you made it in at all, considering the weather outside."

Mulder and Scully shared a look that seemed to say 'Here goes nothing', a look that did not go unnoticed by Horatio. "Well, first of all we are not your typical FBI agents. We investigate highly unusual events that otherwise might seem difficult to explain. We call them 'X-Files'. Your little fingerprint search set off some red flags up in DC, and we were sent down to confirm if your case matches up with others that we are investigating."

Tripp raised an eyebrow in surprise. "Are you saying there are more of these cases out there?"

Mulder turned to face the Detective. "That's right, Officer..." Horatio interrupted, "Sorry Agent Mulder, I'll quickly introduce you to my team." Indicating Frank, he said, "This is Detective Frank Tripp. He is the Lead Homicide investigator on this case. Then there are my CSIs who helped collect and process the evidence, Eric Delko, Ryan Wolfe, and Calleigh Duquesne. Over by the doorway is Maxine Valera and Natalia Boa Vista, our DNA analysts who helped analyze trace we found at the scene."

Mulder nodded his thanks, and turned back to Tripp. "To answer your question, there have been incidents like this all over the country for decades. Albany, New York 1987, Bangor, Maine 1953, Indianapolis, Indiana, 1925. On each of those dates, in each of those cities, if you were to research these incidents, you would find they all shared certain characteristics: that the victims were all elderly grandmothers, that they were found on Christmas morning lying in the snow, after they had been reported missing by their families after they had all gone home to get medication and never returned." Holding up some files, Mulder added, "I figured you might want some cases to review. I know that you do not really believe what we are telling you, but if you read this, it's true."

Scully spoke up for the first time. "Lieutenant Caine, in addition to being an FBI Agent, I am also a licensed medical doctor of Forensic Pathology. If you haven't released the body to the family, I would like to take a look and examine the body for clues to see if it matches our other victims, if I may?"

Horatio thought for a moment. "I don't see why not." He turned to Ryan. "Mr. Wolfe, was Alexx finished with the body when you left?"

"I'm pretty sure she was, and I'm pretty sure we haven't released the body back to the family yet either. I can take Agent Scully down if you would like." Ryan replied.

Horatio glanced at Agent Scully and raised an eyebrow. Scully nodded in return. That would be fine with her. "Alright Mr. Wolfe, please escort Agent Scully to the autopsy lab and tell Alexx to assist Agent Scully in whatever way possible.

"Thank you Lieutenant." Scully replied, and she followed Ryan out of the office.

In the autopsy lab, Alexx had finished cleaning up the rest of the lab and was about to slide the body of Esther Sanchez into one of the storage cabinets when the door opened.

"Alexx?" Ryan called out.

"Back here Ryan," she said as she walked to the main room. "I was just about to…" she stopped when she saw that Ryan wasn't alone. She glanced from the unfamiliar woman to Ryan. "Alexx, this is Special Agent Dana Scully, FBI. She is also a medical doctor in Forensic Pathology. She is here to examine Ms. Sanchez. Agent Scully, this is Dr. Alexx Woods, our medical examiner, who performed the autopsy. Alexx, Horatio said for you to assist Agent Scully fully and completely.

"Of course. I have the body right over here Agent Scully. May I ask why the FBI is getting involved in a local homicide?" Alexx asked?

Ryan was the one who replied however, "You wouldn't believe me if I told you Alexx."

That made her pause. She looked hard at him, arms folded in front of her, "Try me."

When Ryan finished filling her in, it was only the determined expression on Agent Scully's face and Scully showing Alexx some of the other files for her to be convinced. Scully examined the body and it didn't take her long to find the proof she was looking for.

"The M.O. is the same, and this victim fits the profile. I have seen enough. Thank you for your help Dr. Woods. Mr. Wolfe, you can bring me back to your boss's office." Agent Scully replied.

When they got back to Horatio's office, a nod from Scully told Mulder what he already suspected. "Ms. Sanchez is just like the other victims Horatio," Ryan added.

Lieutenant Caine nodded. "Thank you Ryan." He turned to the two agents. "Now…how do you suggest we go from here? I'm sure you can imagine all the inherent problems we would face in not just trying to apprehend Santa Claus, but also the media circus that would accompany any trial. As Detective Tripp mentioned earlier, if word got out that our number one suspect is none other than Santa Claus and if we were to try and bring murder charges against him, our reputation and the integrity of this lab would take a severe hit."

Mulder thought a moment. "Unfortunately, in this once case, you may have to file this one as unsolved Lieutenant; for the specific reasons you claim. Of course, the decision is ultimately up to you, and the local District Attorney."

Horatio frowned in deep thought, and looked up, not at Agent Mulder, but at the various members of his team. "I hate to not have a case go unsolved and bring a killer to justice, but in this instance I'm afraid I will have to defer to Agents Mulder & Scully on this one." He watched as everyone sighed in frustration, but ultimately nodded with great reluctance. "Besides," Horatio couldn't help but give a wry look of bemusement, "imagine how it would traumatize children all over the world for life if they saw Santa Claus going to jail for murder?"


End file.
